UPDATE: Timothee Creignout from France eliminated San Clemente’s Colin McPhillips from the Oxbow Pro this morning (Saturday) at San Onofre State Beach.

McPhillips, a three-time world longboard champion, finishes ninth of 48 surfers in the contest, which began Wednesday. The event was to have run five days, but a forecast of strong side winds for Sunday has prompted organizers to decide to run the contest to its conclusion today.

The final two local surfers in the event were Josh Baxter of San Clemente, who made it to the quarterfinals today, and Joe Aaron of Capistrano Beach, eliminated just prior to the quarterfinals.

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It’s fun and it’s tough, surfing in front of your friends and family at San Onofre in a world-championship contest.

San Clemente’s Colin McPhillips has traveled the world winning three world longboard surfing titles over the last decade. This weekend he has a chance to earn a fourth world title right here at home.

“I want to bring it home to everybody that’s rooted for me for all the years,” he said today at San Onofre after winning his heat at the $50,000 Oxbow Pro, “just to represent the beach and the town.”

McPhillips surfs regularly at San Onofre, a couple of miles south of his town, San Clemente. He admitted there’s “a little more pressure,” competing for the title at his home spot, “but it’s fun, getting to hang out here with all my friends.

“My family is all down here,” he said. “It’s like a regular day at the beach but with all my friends from around the world.”‘

Sixty-four surfers began competing Wednesday. Today’s Round 3 whittled the number down to 16. Either Saturday or Sunday – depending on the surf/weather forecast – Oxbow will crown the 2008 ASP world longboard champion. The champion will be whoever earned the most points this week and at an Oxbow contest held in France in May.

Oxbow will run the championship contest to its conclusion on Saturday if Sunday’s forecast looks bad. Check www.oxbowpro.com Saturday for updates.

The surf was small but clean today, with offshore winds. Some of the 30-minute heats had plenty of waves, others few.

“The bigger waves are definitely where you get the scores, so you have to be patient,” McPhillips said. “We sat for like 15 minutes, it feels like! But when they come in, they’re good ones. I dropped an 8.5 on my first wave. It makes it a little easier to sit for awhile.”

McPhillips backed up the 8.5 with a 7.5 for a heat total of 16. With five minutes left, his opponent, Damien Castera of France, needed a perfect 10 to win. Castera improved his scores in the final minutes but fell short, scoring a 7.35 on his last wave when he needed a near-perfect 9.8 to catch McPhillips.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

McPhillips and Josh Baxter of San Clemente advanced to the Round of 16, as did Joe Aaron of Capistrano Beach. Aaron, 17, scored a dramatic upset win, by a fraction of a point, to knock reigning world champion Phil Rajzman of Brazil out of the contest.

Fred Swegles grew up in small-town San Clemente before the freeway. He has covered the town since 1970. Today he covers San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. He was in the second graduating class at San Clemente High School, after having spent the first two years of high school in double sessions at historic Capistrano Union High School in San Juan. When the new high school opened, he became first sports editor of the school paper, The Triton. He studied journalism and Spanish at USC on scholarship, graduating with honors. Was sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Surfed on the USC surf team. (High school surfing didn't exist back then.) With the Sun Post, he began covering competitive surfing from the mid-1970s, with the birth of the the modern world tour and the origins of high school surf teams. He got into surf photography and into world travel. Has surfed on six continents (not Antarctica). Has visited 11 San Clementes. Has written photo-illustrated profiles on most of them, with more in the works.

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